today's cooking - early summer minestrone with fresh garlic, beet thinnings, borlotti etc.. almost all from the wonderful fern verrow (now on twitter) and another sourdough loaf.

delayed post - last weekend i had a go at what might prove an ongoing project: mangal at home.  first attempt covered lamb ribs:

my earworm from recent work travel:



in other music related news i am very excited about ian and michelle's super detour - and the possibility of neutral milk hotel live in london

work has brought me to new york - have had a fun sunday eating in the city.  i went off to roberta's for brunch as soon as practicable (obviously i woke up at 5...) - no fried chicken this time, but amazing smoked fish bagel and a sticky bun.  thanks to m i went to freeze on randall's island - among the blizzard of art i had a tasty knackwurst from prime meats.  tonight i went to mexican place in hell's kitchen - it was fine, but the proper soft corn tortillas reminds me how under-exploited mexican food is in london.

am back from hong kong - had a lot of excellent food and good times.  best things were probably a japanese cocktail bar, some amazing pu erh and a bunch of tasty tonkotsu ramen.  there was also some lovely dim sum, hunan chicken rice and posh peking duck.  all that being said, it is good to be back home: my raspberry canes and black currents are coming to life and it looks like my sour dough may have survived a two week hiatus.

sorry about the long silence - i have been in china on a small holiday.  in xiamen e and i had a lot of seafood with s - clams, prawns, flatfish &c.  we also spent a couple of days up in the mountains at wuyi shan to try oolong "rock tea", various varieties of fresh bamboo shoot, venison and lots of mushroom as well as climbing a few misty peaks.  i am in hong kong for the rest of the week and i have to say it is pretty lovely to come back after such a long time, even if the experience of half recognising everywhere is a little uncanny.  possibly some pictures will follow.

sorry this is such poor quality - from what i can remember of hearing the CD, it may be authentic.